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Saturday, 7 December 2013

Nailing It...

Bonjour Peaches...

When I first found out about CND Shellac 'Power Polish' I was more than intrigued. My manicurist swore by it's 'goes on like a polish but wears like a gel' guarantee. Always one to believe the hype and jump on any band wagon passing by, I thrust my talons at her and told her to Shellac away. 20 minutes later I had fallen in love. The hype was to be believed. My nails never looked so good; shiny, strong and with a long lasting colour. I was hooked. However, getting them done at the salon every fortnight at £25 a pop was making a dent in my purse that I couldn't ignore. I'd been alright at doing my own nails before my relationship with Shellac had begun so what was stopping me from having a go myself? So, off I went to learn a new skill and perhaps unearth a hidden talent! My best friend Sarah taught me everything she knew and took me to an Aladdins Cave of polishes and products to help me get my starter kit.

That was over a year ago now and since then I've become a dab hand at doing them for myself and my mates. However, it's all well and good being able to do a standard one colour polish, but now I want to try to master more tricky nail art.

After mooching around on Pinterest looking at designs I decided to buy a cheap nail art pen and get cracking. Barry M's Nail Art Pens are a steal at £4.99 so I chose to start small and simple with basic black one.

I gave nine of my nails a dose of 'Blackpool' whilst my wedding ring finger (which is still empty *hint hint*) got the 'Tutti Fruitti' treatment. Remember, this was my first attempt at anything even remotely adventurous so I opted to do an easy polka dot design.

The pen is really straight forward to use and has a very thin 'nib' to allow you to be extra precise. It's pretty much just like using a fine line Sharpie pen to be honest. The flow of polish as it comes out is nice and steady so your nail doesn't get overloaded with product. It dried really quickly and didn't smudge when I put a clear top coat on to seal it.

This is the end result! I'm quite proud of it even though its no where near as advanced as some of the ones I have pinned/liked, but you've got to start somewhere.